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Meat and the Environment

Global warming. Overexploited natural resources. Deforestation. Wasted land. Water and air pollution. The most serious environmental problems of our time are all directly linked to eating meat.

A 2006 United Nations report summarized the devastation caused by the meat industry by calling it "one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global." The report recommended that animal agriculture "be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity."
Many leading environmental organizations, such as the National Audubon Society and the Sierra Club, are now establishing the link between eating meat and eco-disasters like climate change. According to Environmental Defense, if every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than a half-million cars off U.S. roads.
Environmental organizations aren't the only ones making the connection. PETA has worked with many celebrities, such as Sir Paul McCartney and Chrissie Hynde, to help raise awareness about the undeniable link between eating meat and environmental devastation. To read Sir Paul McCartney's interview about the environmental crisis, visit PETA's blog The PETA Files.
To learn more about how raising animals for food causes global warming, wastes resources, and pollutes our environment as well as what you can do to help, please click on the links below

Land

Vast tracts of land are needed to grow crops to feed the billions of animals we raise for food each year. According to scientists at the Smithsonian Institute, the equivalent of seven football fields of land is bulldozed every minute, much of it to create more room for farmed animals. Of all the agricultural land in the U.S., nearly 80 percent is used in some way to raise animals—that's roughly half of the total land mass of the U.S. More than 260 million acres of U.S. forest have been cleared to create cropland to grow grain to feed farmed animals.
The U.S. certainly isn't alone in its misuse of land for animal agriculture. As the world's appetite for meat increases, countries across the globe are bulldozing huge swaths of land to make more room for animals and the crops to feed them. From tropical rain forests in Brazil to ancient pine forests in China, entire ecosystems are being destroyed to fuel our addiction to meat. According to scientists at the Smithsonian Institute, the equivalent of seven football fields of land is bulldozed every minute to create more room for farmed animals.

In the United States and around the world, overgrazing leads to the extinction of indigenous plant and animal species, soil erosion, and eventual desertification that renders once-fertile land barren. Livestock grazing is the number one cause of threatened and extinct species both in the United States and in other parts of the world. Philip Fradkin, of the National Audubon Society, states, "The impact of countless hooves and mouths over the years has done more to alter the type of vegetation and land forms of the West than all the water projects, strip mines, power plants, freeways, and subdivision developments combined." As more and more land both in the U.S. and around the world is irreparably damaged at the hands of the meat industry, what little arable land does remain may not be enough to produce crops to feed the burgeoning world human population.

Overgrazing leads to the extinction of indigenous plant and animal species, soil erosion, and eventual desertification that renders once-fertile land barren.

While factory farms are ruining our land, the commercial fishing industry is pushing entire oceanic ecosystems to the brink of collapse. Commercial fishing boats indiscriminately pull as many fish as they can out of the sea, leaving ecological devastation and the bodies of nontarget animals in their wake. Fishing methods like bottom trawling and long-lining have emptied millions of miles of ocean and pushed some marine species to the brink of extinction.

Food

Raising animals for food is grossly inefficient, because while animals eat large quantities of grain, they only produce small amounts of meat, dairy products, or eggs in return. This is why more than 70 percent of the grain and cereals that we grow in this country are fed to farmed animals. It takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce just one pound of meat, and even fish on fish farms must be fed 5 pounds of wild-caught fish to produce one pound of farmed fish flesh. All animals require many times more calories, in the form of grain, soybeans, oats, and corn, than they can possibly return in the form of animal flesh for meat-eaters to consume.

The world's cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people more than the entire human population on Earth. About 20 percent of the world's population, or 1.4 billion people, could be fed with the grain and soybeans fed to U.S. cattle alone. Learn more about the link between meat consumption and world hunger.

Energy

E, the respected environmental magazine, noted in 2002 that more than one-third of all fossil fuels produced in the United States are used to raise animals for food. This makes sense, since 80 percent of all agricultural land in the U.S. is used by the meat and dairy industries (this includes, of course, the land used to raise crops to feed them).
Simply add up the energy-intensive stages:

» grow massive amounts of corn, grain, and soybeans (with all the required tilling, irrigation, crop dusters, and so on);
» transport the grain and soybeans to manufacturers of feed on gas-guzzling, pollution-spewing 18-wheelers;
» operate the feed mills (requiring massive energy expenditures);
» transport the feed to the factory farms (again, in inefficient vehicles);
» operate the factory farms;
» truck the animals many miles to slaughter;
» operate the slaughterhouse;
» transport the meat to processing plants;
» operate the meat-processing plants;
» transport the meat to grocery stores;
» keep the meat refrigerated or frozen in the stores, until it's sold.

Every single stage involves heavy pollution, massive amounts of greenhouse gases, and massive amounts of energy.

Most of us turn off the lights when we leave a room and attempt to conserve energy in other ways, but eating meat is the most inefficient and resource-intensive thing we do. If we Americans cut our meat consumption, our oil problems would be drastically reduced.

Courtesy: http://www.goveg.com/environment-wastedResources-energy.asp

Water

Between watering the crops that farmed animals eat, providing drinking water for billions of animals each year, and cleaning away the filth in factory farms, transport trucks, and slaughterhouses, the farmed animal industry places a serious strain on our water supply. Nearly half of all the water used in the United States goes to raising animals for food.

It takes 5,000 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat, while growing 1 pound of wheat only requires 25 gallons. A totally vegetarian diet requires only 300 gallons of water per day, while a meat-eating diet requires more than 4,000 gallons of water per day. You save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you do by not showering for an entire year.

While millions of people across the globe are faced with droughts and water shortages, much of the world's water supply is quietly being diverted to animal agriculture. As the Western diet spreads to the rest of the world, even desert nations in Africa and the Middle East are pouring what little water they have into meat production.

It is clear that raising animals for food puts a tremendous strain on our already limited water supply, and water is used much more efficiently when it goes toward producing crops for human consumption.

Rainforest

Eating chickens destroys the rainforest. That's the message of a major environmental organization alarmed at the rapidly increasing destruction of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. According to the nonprofit group Greenpeace, all the wild animals and trees in more than 2.9 million acres of rainforest were destroyed in the 2004-2005 crop season in order to grow crops that are used to feed chickens and other animals in factory farms. While many of the world's largest meat, egg, and dairy-products companies are responsible for this, Greenpeace blames the notorious animal-abusing company KFC for leading the way in laying waste to the Amazon—check out the giant banner below that Greenpeace activists displayed in Brazil.

One of the main common crops grown in the rainforest is soy—in fact, much of the enormous amount of soy that is needed to feed the world’s farmed animals now comes from the rainforest. (The soy that is used in veggie burgers, tofu, and soy milk in the United States is almost exclusively grown domestically, not in the Amazon.) A whopping 80 percent of the world's soy crop is used to feed farmed animals. It is hugely inefficient to feed crops to farmed animals instead of eating the crops ourselves; it takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of animal flesh. If we simply ate soy and other plant foods ourselves instead of feeding them to farmed animals, we would not need to raise nearly as much crops and we could eliminate the need to decimate the rainforest. On top of all that, by eating only plant foods instead of animal flesh, we would have enough food to feed every person in the world, making an enormous impact in the struggle against world hunger.

So, basically, by enjoying a Boca Chik'n Patty instead of gnawing on a KFC drumstick, you can help to prevent cruelty to animals, battle global hunger, and protect the rainforest! For some delicious chicken—and rainforest—friendly recipes, visit VegCooking.com. Then check out KentuckyFriedCruelty.com for information about how you can help stop KFC's animal-abusing ways.

While millions of people across the globe are faced with droughts and water shortages, much of the world's water supply is quietly being diverted to animal agriculture. As the Western diet spreads to the rest of the world, even desert nations in Africa and the Middle East are pouring what little water they have into meat production.

It is clear that raising animals for food puts a tremendous strain on our already limited water supply, and water is used much more efficiently when it goes toward producing crops for human consumption.

Eating Your Way to a Smaller 'Ecological Footprint'

What we choose to eat has an enormous impact on the environment. Following a diet loaded with animal flesh, eggs, and dairy products is like trampling the Earth in an SUV—it's bad for the environment and wastes vast amounts of resources. Switching to a vegetarian diet reduces your "ecological footprint", allowing you to tread lightly on the planet and be compassionate to its inhabitants.

Consider the following:

» Eating animals causes global warming. A major report by the University of Chicago in 2006 found that adopting a vegan diet has a greater impact in the fight against global warming than switching to a hybrid car does.

» It takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of animal flesh. It's shockingly inefficient to feed plant foods to farmed animals and consume their flesh rather than eating the plant foods ourselves.

» In the U.S. every second, chickens, turkeys, pigs, and cows in factory farms produce nearly 89,000 pounds of excrement, which is contaminated with the antibiotics and hormones that are pumped into these animals. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the runoff from factory farms pollutes our waterways more than all other industrial sources combined.

» Industrial agriculture consumes and wastes a tremendous amount of resources: In the U.S., 70 percent of all grains, 80 percent of all agricultural land, half of all water resources, and one-third of all fossil fuels are used to raise animals for food.

» Eating animals destroys the rain forest. Most environmentalists are aware that the Amazon has been slashed and burned in order to create grazing space for cows. But perhaps an even greater threat is the destruction of rain forest in order to create land where feed is grown for factory-farmed animals in wealthy nations. A recent report by Greenpeace blamed the chicken-flesh industry, particularly KFC, for leading the way in destroying the Amazon.

» By choosing vegetarianism instead of a diet loaded with animal products, you can dramatically reduce the amount of land, water, and oil resources that you consume and the amount of pollution that you cause. Of course, reducing your ecological footprint should also mean causing less harm to the Earth's nonhuman inhabitants: By switching to a vegetarian diet, you can save more than 100 animals each year from the horrific cruelty of the flesh, egg, and dairy industries. Please make the compassionate, environmentally friendly choice to switch to a healthy vegetarian diet. Order a free vegetarian starter kit today.